


After a Day Like That

by delighted



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Coda, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Kissing, M/M, S8E12
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 08:40:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13477785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delighted/pseuds/delighted
Summary: Adam calls Danny when he leaves Steve at HQ that night. Because he’s pretty sure Steve needs to not be alone....





	After a Day Like That

**Author's Note:**

> There’s that moment when you realize— _uh, oh, it’s a Danny-free episode_. Ungh. “That’s okay,” I say. “I’ll just have to write him in.” So... here’s a little something for episode 12, because Steve was breaking my heart at the end, and Danny would know just what to do.
> 
> (This is as far as I'm caught up, so no spoilers and all that, please.... I am working on some of those things you've been asking for... follow ups or the alternate pov on some of my recent stories, but hope to catch up on the show soon as well!)

Danny was already in bed when Adam called. Not that it mattered. Two reasons. One, he’d been in bed most of the day (he was getting the hang of this whole “recovery” thing, finally), and two, he’d walk over hot coals to go to Steve after a day like that. And Adam knew it.

“Thanks, Adam. And, welcome aboard. It’s about time.”

He’d suspected Steve had been trying to think of a way to bring Adam on the team, so while the brutality with which the opportunity had fallen in his lap made it painfully sharp, there was relief, in some sense, to finally have him officially on their side.

“Ha. Thanks, Danny. Just look after your boy. He needs it.”

Adam spoke from experience, Danny knew. Knew as well Adam would be missing Kono more than usual tonight. Danny allowed himself a sigh. He was grateful for Adam’s head’s up, because he knew Steve would not have come to him, wouldn’t have called, even. And maybe that was upsetting him more than just a little.

“Will do.”

“ _Good luck_....”

Danny chuckled softly, getting out of bed and heading to the kitchen to pack some food, because he was one million percent certain that on top of everything else, Steve had not eaten a single bite all day.

Once he had a cooler packed, he loaded it and a bag into the Camaro, and drove maybe a little faster than normal to the office.

Pulling up to his usual spot, he saw Steve’s truck... and the light on in his office window. He sighed heavily and then got out, leaving the bag, but grabbing the cooler.

Steve was so distracted that he didn’t notice Danny’s approach, not until he was opening his office door.

“Danny... what are you—” he looked down, saw the cooler. Deflated. “Adam.”

“Yeah, babe.”

“Danny, I’m not really in the mood for....”

“What, company? Food?”

“ _Either_.” He sounded broken. Danny cringed.

 “Well, that’s too bad. Because you need both.”

“Danny, please don’t tell me what I need.”

And now the anger was starting to come out. Well, that was inevitable as well, wasn’t it. Fortunately, Danny was used to Steve’s anger, and he might have been weak and sore and not very strong, but he knew that strength wasn’t really what Steve needed. But he _could_ use a little push....

“Why, because you are so great a judge of that right now?”

“ _Danny_....” It was exhausted, hurt, and just a little thread of threatening underneath, like a hurt beast that bares its teeth. But also, Danny knew, just that little bit resigned. Maybe even giving in.

“Just shut up and come here.”

Danny walked toward Steve, gesturing for him to stand, sensing he needed a hug. Or maybe Danny just needed to give him one. Maybe _Danny_ needed one. Steve rose, somewhat reluctantly. Danny stepped closer, Steve standing still, stiff—yet looking like one swift breeze and he might well collapse—and somehow, suddenly, Danny found himself moving not as if to hug Steve, but something very different indeed. Without thinking, just somehow feeling it was the thing to do, Danny took hold of Steve’s hands, pulled on them so he was stooping slightly, then craned his neck up and pressed his lips to Steve’s. It wasn’t so much a kiss as them holding their lips against each other. Just for a moment. Then Danny sort of collapsed back down, and Steve straightened, slowly, back to standing.

“Okay, that wasn’t what I was planning on doing....” It sounded perplexed. He _felt_ perplexed.

But then he saw that Steve was smiling. Just a little. And it still looked sad, beaten, but now with just a dash of something more hopeful, and it occurred to Danny that a kiss might actually have been exactly the perfect thing to get through to Steve in that moment. Neither of them seemed to have an idea of what to do next, however, and Steve was still hovering there, looking like he’d fall over any second, so Danny steered him towards the sofa, and pulled the cooler along with them.

“Just some leftovers, babe, but it’s food, and you need to eat, okay? Take at least a few bites, then we can talk, if you like, or not. Up to you.”

Steve nodded, and sank back against the black leather, letting out a breath that sounded like he’d been holding it in all day.

Danny pulled out a sandwich of meatloaf leftover from when Grace had cooked earlier that week, and a tub of potato salad he’d put together from baked potatoes from the same meal. While she ordinarily felt Danny should eat mostly vegetables, Grace had been on a meat and potatoes kick with him since the shooting.  He wasn’t protesting, though he hated that it seemed to mean she was worrying, but he was glad he’d had something of substance on hand to hopefully get into Steve. He looked like he needed a lot more than a sandwich, but it was a start.

It took a while, and small bites to begin, but when Danny mentioned it had been made by Grace, Steve lit up just a little, and resumed eating with greater enthusiasm. It made Danny smile, and warmed something in his heart that didn’t feel entirely familiar. By the time he was washing it all down with a bottle of water, Steve looked considerably better, and Danny felt a whole lot more relaxed.

They sat there in silence for a while, shoulders touching, not speaking, not doing anything, like they were somehow on hold. Danny was beginning to panic about being so unsure of his next move, when he felt another... _push_... and found himself saying, before he could think:

“Come home with me.”

Danny’d packed a bag, in case he found that Steve had in fact gone home, so that he could stay the night if Steve needed. But something was telling Danny that his own bed was going to be better tonight. He wasn’t really sure why, it just... felt right. The fact that he was meaning _bed_ , and not sofa, where Steve usually slept when he crashed at Danny’s.... Well. That was something he wasn’t going to look too closely at just now.

Steve hesitated, but then shook his head. “Nah, Danno, you need your rest.”

“Yes, I do, babe,” Danny said, turning to Steve and grabbing his hands again. “And that is _not_ going to happen unless you’re with me, so....” He was looking maybe too intently into Steve’s eyes, but couldn’t seem to help himself.

Steve blinked, shook himself from the eye contact, then looked down at their hands, realized he’d been rubbing his thumbs over Danny’s wrists, and stopped. Looking back up at Danny, swallowing awkwardly, a strange glaze flitting over his eyes, he whispered “You’re, um. You’re not cleared for....?”

Danny’s eyebrows went up, a crooked smile spread across his lips, which he then licked. “ _No_... I’m not.” He felt amused. Delighted even. “You, ahh... think you can sleep next to me without....?” He felt shaky, nervous, _thrilled_.

Steve’s eyes narrowed, looking insulted, a little hurt. “ _Of course_ I can.”

It sent Danny just a little backwards. Mock indignation, but only sort of. “Ohh, ‘of course’? Ouch.”

Steve rolled his eyes, tugged Danny back closer. “You know what I mean. Besides. I’m not really in the right place for that tonight.”

Danny leaned gratefully against Steve, the pull of the day dragging them both down; meatloaf and a kiss only providing so much _lift_....

“I know, babe. That’s part of why I want you next to me though. _Please_.”

Still resisting, but mostly for show at this point, Steve made one last attempt: “I probably won’t sleep....”

“Yeah. I know. And I will. Maybe it’ll rub off on you or something.”

“That’s cute, Danno.”

Steve’s thumbs had resumed their movements on Danny’s wrists, maybe because of the word _rub_. It would have made Danny shiver in anticipation if he wasn’t so tired and so drained by his worry about Steve. Not to mention the heartbreak and loss that had drenched the day. Pulling something deep within himself, that reserve you can always tap into when you have to, Danny moved to get them out of the office. As long as Steve stayed here, he’d be held in limbo, stuck still in the process of the day, unable to begin to move forward. Danny didn’t expect the mantle of the day to drop from Steve’s shoulders the moment he walked in his door. But he knew it would crush him if he didn’t start to let it go.

“Well, I’m a cute guy, now shut up and pack this stuff up and drive me home. I’m exhausted.”

Steve looked at the remnants of his meal, then at Danny. It somehow was just occurring to him why Danny hadn’t been with them for that awful awful day, and Danny watched as it added one more layer of hurt to Steve’s already drooping frame.

“Danny—you really shouldn’t have....”

Beating himself up once more about Danny’s injury was something he was not about to allow Steve to do, so he stood, pulling on Steve to get him up as well. Maybe a little more harshly than he needed, but Danny knew that if Steve started down that path, they’d both be lost. 

“Yeah, I should have,” Danny said, pushing on Steve’s chest firmly. “Now seriously, shut up and move quickly or you’re going to have to carry me downstairs, and I’m pretty sure the security guys would love that.”

Steve chuckled lightly in response, and Danny knew that if things were different he more than likely would have taken him up on that suggestion. As it was, they walked, arms around each other, down to the Camaro and Steve drove them slowly to Danny’s, his hand resting on Danny’s leg the whole way, Danny’s hand over it.

Danny kept a toothbrush for Steve in his bathroom, had for years, and we won’t point out that maybe that should have given them some indication of the way things would someday be, but Danny suggested Steve _use it, thoroughly please, and take a Navy shower and get in bed please before I fall asleep_. Throwing a pair of sleep shorts at Steve, Danny crawled back in his bed on a carefully modulated sigh of relief rather than the exhausted groan that wanted to escape. Upsetting Steve more was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

Danny did drift off before Steve made it into bed, but so lightly that he woke as soon as the mattress dipped. Steve was looking shy and tentative, and Danny’s heart turned over.

“Come here.”

Steve looked down at his bare chest. “I don’t get a tee shirt?”

Danny couldn’t hide the grin. He’d wondered if Steve would let that go. It was his one concession to his... well. He’d had ideas of what it might be like when he finally got Steve in his bed, and tonight was not going to be that and that was okay, really, he wasn’t up for anything anyway, but he was at least going to have _this_. (“This,” meaning Steve’s bare chest, in case you’re just completely oblivious as to how much Danny’s always admired that particular work of art.)

As though he understood, which, let’s be honest, he probably did, Steve returned the grin with a soft smirk of his own, and allowed Danny to pull him close, their hands on each other’s chests—Steve’s finding Danny’s wound and covering it as though he could prevent it from having occurred, Danny’s fingers tangling lightly in Steve’s chest hairs as he’d so often longed to do. Slowly, but as though drawn by some inevitable force that finally caught up with them, despite the awful timing, they found themselves kissing. Soft, sweet, tentative kisses that gradually deepened to tender exploratory things that nonetheless held themselves very mindfully back from some invisible brink across which they dared not step. Not yet. When they found it, they stopped, five kinds of sorrow in their eyes as their expressions met, but hope swirled around and through them, mingling with the scent of Danny’s shampoo, somehow lingering on Steve’s far far too short hair. He’d never noticed the fragrance on himself, but decided he liked it very much on Steve. He also very much liked Steve’s bare chest in his bed.... Steve’s lips on his.... Steve’s weight beside him, Steve’s warmth against his skin.

“Thanks for coming to get me tonight, Danny.”

“Just shut up and kiss me one more time and then I’m going to pass out.”

Steve grinned, then kissed Danny a little too long.

They fell asleep like that, facing each other, hands together close to their hearts, and Danny fell asleep before Steve did, but when he woke a bit later he knew that Steve’d drifted off as well. They didn’t sleep well... they wouldn’t have expected to. But it didn’t really matter, because they knew there would be other nights for better sleep. And other nights for other things. And they knew there would be other nights like this as well. But all of that would be so much easier to face if they could do it like this.... Together.


End file.
